Signaling and circuit-connecting apparatus



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I T. A. WATSON.

SIGNALING AND CIRCUIT GONNEGTING APPARATUS.

Patented Jan. 3,1882.

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2 Sheets-Sheet; 2. V T. A. WATSON. SIGNALING AND CIRCUIT CONNECTING APPARATUS.

(No.Model.)

Patented Jan; 3, 18 82.

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Y UNITED STATES PATENT OFFrcE.

THOMAS A. WATSON, OF EVERETT, ASSIGNOR TO THEAMERIGAN BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

SIGNALING AND CIRCUIT-CONNECTING APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 251,807, dated January 3, 1882. Application filed July 6, 1880. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that LTHOMAS A. WA'rsoN, of Everett, county of-Middlesex, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Signaling and (lircuibOonnecting Apparatus, of which the following descriptiomin connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification.

' for communication between the dift'erentoftices signals-one less than the whole number of of a corporation or rooms of a building; and it consists of a suitable annunciator or signaling and circuit-connecting instrument placed in each of the said offices or rooms and provided with annllnciator drops and keys, as here inafter described.

Each annunciator has a number of drops or rooms--each drop corresponding to one of the rooms other than the one in which the annunciatoris situated. Gorrespondin g to each drop is a key to control an electric circuit passing through an electro-magnet to operate an annunciator-d'rop in the room which the drop corresponding to the said key ihdicates.- By operating one of the said keys an annunciator drop is displayed in theroom corresponding to the said hey, the said drop indicating in which room the key was operated, and a person upon receiving this signal operates his key corresponding to the. drop which hasjust been dis played,- and this key in turn operates the drop in the room, and corresponding to the key from whichthe signal was given, to. thus give information that the signal is received and the person receiving it is. ready to communicate.

Oorrespondin g in position to the diflerent keys last described, which may be called the f signalingkeys, are a set of telephone keys, so called, since they control circuits'leadin g to telephonicinstrumen tsin the rooms corresponding to the annunciator-drops last described, so that after one person has operated his signaling or annunciator key to call up another person, and has received the return-signal, as he-reinbefore described, the two operators, by depressing telephone-keys corresponding to the signalingkeys just operated, will place their telephonic instruments in circuit with one another for telephonic communication. For instance, supposing there were three rooms. No. 1 would have two communicating drops, numbered 2 and 3, (or hearing the names corresponding to rooms 2 and 3,as presidents office, secretarys offic'e, &c.,) and two annunciator or signaling keys corresponding to thesaid drops, and two telephone-keys. It the rooms are called 1, -2', and 3, the annunciator of each room will have drops bearing the numbers of the other rooms, room 2 having drops 1. and?) and room 3 having drops 1 and 2. When the occupant of room No. 1 wishes to signal room 2 or 3 he depresses the signaling-key corresponding to the drop having the number of the room he desires to signaL-as, for example, No.2, which operates in room 2, the drop numbered 1 thus indicating to the operator there that a commu- 5 nication isdesired in room 1. This operator in room 2 will then depress the key corresponding to the drop No.1 he has just seen operated, and will thus operate in room 1 the drop No.2. An alarm or signal bell is placed in the common circuit leading from all the drop-operating electro-magnets ofeach annunciator to the battery or electric generator used, so thatsimultaneously with the movement of the drop to indicate from What room a signal is received an audible signal is given to call attention to the annunciator. It will-be seen'that by this arrangement electric conductors or Wires must pass from each room to every other room, so that if the rooms are supposed to be situated 0 at the angles of a polygon and the necessary connections made direc tlyfrom one point to another the electric conductors or wires would pass over lines representing all the sides and diagonals of the said polygon, thus forming a complicated net-work difficult to establish and maintain. I have avoided this difficulty and confusion by leading all the conductors from each room inclosed in a cable, or otherwiscompactly arranged, to a central point, where all the cross-connections between the wires of the different rooms are made, and where the batteries or electric generators employed may be placed.

Figure l is a top view of an annunciator such as may be employed to carry out my invention, part of the inclosing-case being removed; Fig. 2 an under side view thereof; Fig. 3, a transverse section on line 00 :0, Figs. 1 and 2, and Fig. 4, a diagram showing the arran gement of circuits employed for connecting different instruments, three only being indicated, for the sake of simplicity.

As herein shown eight drops, with the corresponding signaling and telephone keys,are employed, such instruments being adapted for use with any number of rooms or points of communication less than ten, one of them bein g placed in each room. The annunciator-drops a a a 820., and their operating electro-magnets b, are or may beotanyusual construction. As herein shown they are of the kind invented by me and described in a previous application, to which reference may be had.

The armatures 0, having one end pivoted at 2 on a supporting-post, d, are provided at their other end with a rod, a, resting on the end of the short arm of a lever, f, pivoted at 3, and carrying at its other end theindicating-signal 9. When an electro-magnet, b, is magnetized the armature c is drawn down thereon, as shown in Fig. 3, the rod 0 depressing the short arm of lever f and raising the long arm thereof and the connected visible signal 9 to bring the said signal in front of an opening, h, in the inclosing-case. (See Fig. 3.)

In front of the annunciator-drops a a a are placed corresponding signaling-keys, 8 850., each adapted to close an electric circuit leading to an electro-magnet, 1), operating a drop in the room bearing the name or number corresponding to the drop opposite or in front of which the said key is placed. These keys operate as follows: The finger keys or buttons 8 s are connected with stems ibearin g on the free ends of springs is, fastened at their other ends to the framework, and provided with binding-screws to be connected with the binding-screws k in the other instrument. Any one of the springs 70 is brought by depressing one of the buttons 8 8 &c., above it into contact with the common anvil j, provided with a binding-screw, Z, to be connected with one pole of the battery. The operation of this part of the apparatus is as follows: Supposing the operator in the room containing the instrumentillustrated in Figs. 1, 2, 3, and which may becalled room 9,desires to call an operator in the room No. 7, or corresponding to and indicated by the annunciatordrop M, be will depress the key 8 opposite the said drop, and thus close the circuit between the anvil connected with one pole of the battery and the spring 7c, the said circuit passing from said spring 70 by the wire connected with the binding-screw 7c thereon to one of the binding-screw k of the similar instrument in room 7, whence it passes through the coils of the drop-magnet b to operate the signal 9 to the wire 5, connected with and common to all the magnets 12, and passing through the magnet m of the signal bell n to the wire 6 and binding-screwoconnected with the other pole of the battery, thus magnetizing the said magnets b m, raising the indicating-signal g, and sounding the hell it. If the numbers of the drops a a &c., are supposed to be the same as the rooms they indicate, the key 8 corresponding to the drop a of the instrument just operated in room 7, will close the circuit through the magnet b of the drop a and the magnet m of room 9 in a similar manner. In the same way the key 8 is connrcted to operate a drop, a", in room No. 1, where the corresponding key will operate drop a of room 9, and so on, each instrument containing drops having the names or numbers of all the other rooms, and each of the keys corresponding to the said drops operates a drop bearing the number of the room in which the said key is situated -in the room having the number of and indicated by the drop corresponding to the said key.

The telephone-keys t 25 &c., in front of and corresponding to the signal-keys 8 850., are each connected with one of the binding-screws p and a wire leading therefrom to the corresponding binding-screwspand connected keys t in the other rooms. The key of each room is connected to the key in another room opposite to the annunciator-drop bearing the number of the room in which the first mentioned key is situatedas, for example, key 25 of room 6 is connected with key t of room 2. All the said telephone-keys of one instrument have a common anvil, 1, of peculiar construction, as hereinafter described, connected by wire7 with one electrode or terminal of the telephonic instruments used in connection with the said signaling-instrument, these telephonic instruments in all the different rooms having a common return-circuit wire connected with their other terminal. After a signal has been given and a return-signal received by the signalingkeys, as last described, the corresponding telephone-keys are depressed, the key it connecting one electrode or terminal of thetelephonic instruments in the room 9 with the bindingscrewp and wire leading to the key t in room 7, and the said key 1 when depressed, continuing the circuit to the anvil 1' and one electrode or terminal of the telephonic instrument in room 7, the other electrodes of the said instruments in rooms 9 and 7 being connected by the common return-circuit wire, as before described, so that the circuit is now in proper condition for communication between the said rooms 9 and 7.

The telephone-keys t P, Ste, are provided with metallic stems a, terminating in conical heads a, and are normally held elevated by f springs 20 out of contact with thcanvil 1', which consists of a rod connected by cross-bars r with a shaft, r pivoted at 8 in brackets a connected withthe frame-work. The connected rod 1' and shaft r form a frame adapted to be swung on the pivots 8 in the direction of the arrow, Fig. 3, the said frame being provided with a spring, w, bearing against'a stop, 20, on the frame-work, and tending to retain the said frame pressed against'a stop, 1, on the frame-work. (See Fig. 2) p Each key t t, 850., is connected by wire 9 with one of the binding-screws p, and when one of the said keys is depressed its conical head a wedges the rod 1" aside, the spring to then yielding until the said head arrives at a point below the rod T, when the spring 7.! throws the said rod back over the head a to retain it and the connected key in its depressed condition,and thus form electric connection be tween the binding-screw and the said anvil r and wire 7 attached thereto. Vhen the operators in two rooms have each depressed the telephone-key connected with the wire leading to the other of said rooms the telephonic circuit will be closed between the said rooms and will remain so, the keys being retained depressed by the rods 9' engaging the heads to. Communication may then be carried on without further care on the part of the operators. 1f one of the telephone-keys is already depressed, and the operator depresses another one, the latter will move the rod r aside and release the head a of the one previously depressed, which will then be raised by the spring 10 so that two telephone-keys will not remain depressed at the same time unless it-might for some reason be desirable to connect more than two points, in which case the proper keys could be depressed simultaneously, or one held down while the other was being moved down and engaged by the rod 1. A key previonsl y held down will be disengaged upon the depression of another before the latter is itself engaged, so that by the proper manipulation all the keys may be left open; but it will do no harm to leavethe key down until a different connection is desired, when the said key will be released by the one making the new connection.

, The method of making the necessary connections. is illustrated in Fig. 4, where three rooms are shown provided with instruments similar to the one shown in the other figures, the said rooms being called 1, 2, and 3.

The instrumentin each room will. be provided with indicator-drops marked to indicate the other roomsas, for example, room 1-will be provided with indicator-drops 2 and 3 to indicate that a signal is received from rooms 2, 3, respectively. The corresponding keys, 8 s, will control the drops a. in rooms 2 and 3, and the telephone-keyst t will connect the telephoned, room 1 with the key 15 in rooms2 and 3. In a similar manner the instrument in room 2 will contain drops and keys marked 1 and 3, and connected with rooms 1 and 3, respectively, andso on, for as many rooms and iustru'ments'as there maybe. All the wires from each room are led together. bring preferably inclosed in a cable, to a common point, where the proper connec'ions between the wires from the different rooms are made, and where the battery B for operating the signaling-magnets b and m is placed, it having one pole connected with the wire 6 branching and leading to all the instruments, at each of which it passes through the magnet m and is COllIltClletl with the wire From the wires 5 in each instrument branch wires lead to the binding-screws k which are connected by thewires 12 13 22 23 32 33,1eading to the connectingstation, and there connected with wires leadingto the bin ding-screws k and springs it, operated by the keys 8'8 &c., in the other instruments. These springs 7c are normally separated from their anvils j,

which are connected at each instrument by the bindingscrew l with a common returnwire, 15, leading to the other pole of the battery B. i

If desired, the anvilsj and the connected pole of thebattery might be grounded instead of using the returnwire, and the latter, it used, will also be used as the return-wire for the telephone-circuits, and should be of very low resistance to prevent dividing of the currents in case more than one telephonic circuit is closed at a time.

The wires 12 13 from the magnets b of the drops a a? in room 1 are connected at the connecting-station with the wires 21 31, respectively, leading to the springs k of the signaling-keys s in rooms 2 and 3, respectively, and the wires 22 and 23 from drops a. a", room 2, are connected with the wires 11 34. leading to the keys 8 in rooms 1 and3, and the wires 32.

33 from drops a d in room 3 are connected with the wires 14 24, leading to the keys .9 in rooms 1 and 3. 1

The telephonic instrument in each room (shown as the usual hand-telephone T) have one electrode connected by wire ltlfwll h the anvil r of the telephone-keys t t &c., and the other electrode connected by wire 18 with the ground or common return-wire 15, hercinbefore described. Usually the secondary coil of a battery-transmitter will be includedin the circuit of wire 18 or 40.

The telephone-keys 25 t*, 850., of each instrument, normally separated from their anvils r,

are connected with the, telephone-keys of the other instruments, as follows: Key t in room 1 is connected by wire 16 with wire '26, lead ing to and connected with key t in room 2, and key t in room 1 wire 17 with wire 37, and key 15 in room 3 and key i in room 2 by wire 27 with wire 36 and key t in room 3.

The signaling devices or annunciator-drops afjrfi, 850., will preferably be marked atthe opening h, Fig. 3, through which the signal 9 is displayed, with the name of the room the said drop indicates for,which is also theroom which is connected with the signaling and telephone keys iii-front of the said drop.

The operation isas follows: Supposing an operator, as in room 1, wishes to communicate with a person in room 2, he will depress the signaling-key s in front of the drop or signaling device a marked with the name of the room of which he desires to signal an occupant. This will close the circuit from one pole of the battery through the b'anch of the return-Wire 15 leading to room 1, and the anvil j therein to the spring it, operated by the said key 8 from which thecircuit will be completed by wires 11 and 22, and through the magnet b of the drop a in room 2, and thence by wire 5 to and then through the magnet m, and by wire 6 to the other pole of the battery, thus magnetizing the said magnets I) and m to operate the drop a in room 2 and sound the signal bell n. If the operator in room 1 had depressed the key 3 the drop a would have been similarly operated in room 3. The 00- cupant of room 2, upon hearing the sound of the bell, turns to the signaling-instrument, and upon seeing the signal 9 displayed at the openingmarked l knows that he is called from room 1 and accordingly depresses the key 8 in front of the said signal, thereby closing the circuit through wires 21, 12, 5, 6, and 15, and the magnet b of drop a and magnet on in room 1 indicating in the said room that a signal (in this case the return-signal) is received from room 2. The operators in rooms 1 and 2 then depress thetelephone-keys t and t, respectively, in front of the drop just operated, and thus ciose the telephonic circuit for talking between the said rooms, the said circuit being as follows: from one binding-screw ot' the telephone T in room 1 by wire 40 to the anvil r, and thence from the key 13 connected therewith by wires 16 and 26 to key t, and the anvil r in room 2, and thence by wire 40 through the telephone T, returning by wires 18, 15, and 18 to the other binding-screw of the telephone in room 1. By this arrangement it Will be seen that the telephonic circuit is confined between the points connected by corresponding telephone keys, and that while the occupants of two rooms are communicating a third one cannot in any way overhear, except when it is intended .that heshall,in which case the keys connected, with his room will also be depressed.

The return-wire 15, when used instead of a ground, is of sufficient conductivity to prevent anymaterial portion of the currents from passing through a second telephonic circuit, if closed, so that when there is a considerable number of different points connected conversation may be carried on between different pairs of. them simultaneously without any interference or confusion.

I claim- 1. A series of three or more signaling-instruments, comprising each a set of signalkeys and signaling devices connected with one another, as indicated-that is to say, the signal-keys in one instrument being connected with signal-devices in the other instruments,

a separate key with each signal device,whereby a signal can be given from any of said instruments at any other by means of the appropriate signal-key, which signal will indicate whence it is sent, and a return-signal can in like manner be given, substantially as described.

2. A series of three or more telephone signaling-instruments, comprising signal -keys, telephonekeys, and signal devices, and electrically connected, as indicated-that is to say, the signal keys and devices in eachinstrument being connected with corresponding devices and keys in others, a separate key to each signal device, and the telephone-key in each instrument being similarly connected with the telephone-keys in other instruments, substantially as described.

3. Sets of telephone-keys having a common anvil for each set, in combination with telephones, conductors connecting the telephones with said anvils and with the ground or a return wire or wires, and conductors connecting the keys with one another, and thekeys in each set with keys in all the other sets, substantially as described.

4. The combination, with a series of springkeys, of a common anvil and means, as indicated, for retaining the keys in contact with said anvihwhereby when a key or keys are depressed they are automatically engaged, and when a key or keys are subsequently depressed they are engaged and the keys formerly depressed are automatically disengaged, substantially as described.

5. A series of signaling and circuit-connecting instruments at different stations, each provided with a series of signal-keys and a corresponding series of signaling-devices, to give and to receive characteristic signals at and from the other instruments of the series, and also provided with a series of telephone-keys corresponding to the said signaling keys and devices, each telephone-key of the instrument at one station having electrical connections, as explained,so as to close a circuit through telephonic instruments at the said station to a corresponding telephone-ke'y in the instrument at another station, each of the two connected telcphone-keys corresponding in position with the signaling key and device of the said instrument devoted to signaling between the said two connected stations, whereby the operators, after signaling one another, by operating the proper signaling-keys, may he placed in telephonic communication by operating the telephone-keys corresponding to the said signaling-keys, substantially as described.

6. In an electrical system having a series of three or more stations connected with one an- 251,507 r Y e ments: aseries of annunciator-drops or indicating-signals to indicate from What point a communication is desired, as'eries of signalingkeys corresponding thereto, and a series of telephone-keys corresponding to the indicating signals and keys, substantially as and for the purpose setforth.

8. A series of circuitcontrolling keys connectedwith a series of independent telephonic circuits and a common anvil constructed, as explained, so as to engage and hold any one of the said keys when depressed, and to be disengaged therefrom when operated by the depression of a second key, the said anvil being connected with one electrode of a telephonic instrument having its other electrode connected with the ground or a return-circuit common to all the said independent telephonic circuits, substantially as and for the purpose described.

In testimony whereof Ihave signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

THOMAS A. WATSON.

Witnesses:

J 0s. 1?. LIVERMORE, N. E. (L WHITNEY. 

